I take anything the “news” tells me with a pinch of salt these days. Very little of it is actually useful or even important. If a murderer took his own life after that of his victim’s, then why report the crime on TV? Since the criminal is no longer a threat, reporting the story is not so much of a public service announcement, but more a sick form of entertainment.
Sometimes, however, there are actually stories that should serve the public such as this one from the Independent that states “using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer”.
Over the last couple of decades, smokers have been outcast by society because of the “deadly dangers” of secondhand smoke, but now there’s evidence that mobile phones are more dangerous than smoking!
What exactly is the risk of brain cancer?
A quick look at the National Cancer Institute website tells us that there were 6.4 incidents of brain cancer for every 100,000 people in the U.S between 1990 and 2002. The actual mortality rate was 4.5.
That’s just 0.0045%.
Although, “top neurosurgeon” Professor Khurana’s findings have not been proven or even peer-reviewed yet, if we’re to assume he is correct, then using a cell phone for 10 years will increase your chances of dying from brain cancer to 0.009%.
Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos
So does this mean the chances of dying from smoking or asbestos poisoning is less than 0.009%? Well, I can’t comment on asbestos, but according to the article, there are three times more cell phone users than smokers, so with the information given, we should assume that the maximum risk of dying from cigarettes is 0.009% times 3, which is 0.027%.
Media spin makes me dizzy
Throwing fancy words like “top neurosurgeon”, “professor”, “evidence”, “definitively proven” at us, mixed with shocking assertions about “death”, is nothing more than media spin to make you believe this is a serious issue.
What we can see now, however, is that nothing here has been proven (the article itself admits this in a roundabout way), and even if it had, it shows that a) the risk of dying from brain cancer is only 0.009%, and b) the risk of dying from smoking (based on the information in this article) is only 0.027%, and we can only assume that the risk of dying from secondhand smoke is even lower than that!
This all makes me want to eat more gyoza!
Hat tip to Japundit.
There’s a popular Japanese website called 
Here’s a quote from 
A new phone carrier called 
Apparently I’m on Sony’s 
Some people think he’s alive, others believe he was killed years ago, but I only recently saw the video of Pakistan’s assassinated Benazir Bhutto tell the BBC’s David Frost that the “world’s most wanted man” had been murdered. The interview was aired in full on Al Jazeera, but when it was shown on the BBC, the bit about the murder had been edited out. It was quite bizarre, and I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. You can see the full interview 
Continuing the morbid topic of death, Deas has reported that one of the most popular cartoon characters in Japan, Anpanman, has been 
If you remember, I upgraded my mobile phone to a WIN W52H by Hitachi. The built-in 2.0 Megapixel camera can take great photos, giving you the choice of twilight, night view, sports, person, and all the usually Scene options. I’m not sure how common it is to have a flash on a mobile phone, but Rikuto certainly gets a surprise when I use it on him! What’s more, you can even take video footage with it! Okay, okay, I know most digital cameras these days have a video option, but let’s not forget that this is a phone, and with its 2GB memory card, I can record over an hour of footage!
So why did I go out and buy another camera? Because the Nikon Coolpix S500, which I used to take the photo of Kakamigahara’s sunset in my previous post is one sexy, little gadget with all the trimmings of a professional camera. Actually, I don’t know too much about the specifications other than it’s got a great zoom, and it can take much higher quality pictures than my mobile phone. It’s a 7.1 Megapixel camera, with anti-blur, auto red-eye fix, a whole host of color options, and it goes without saying that it records video, too. The best thing about it for me is that it does everything automatically. All you need to decide is what to shoot!
If I were asked to pick a favorite photo that I’ve taken with one of these digital cameras, it would be this one in Sepia mode that I took with the Coolpix. This is one of the better pictures of Mami and myself with our little boy, Rikuto. Having a baby was the motivation I needed to get these cameras. With modern technology, we can record digital memories that never fade, and I hope to record Rikuto’s childhood so he can treasure it forever… and his wife can use it to make fun of him like Mami does with my baby photos!